


Soup-er Heroes

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: (super) suit and tie [2]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: M/M, Parent Jack Kelly, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26243809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Impulse is now almost a full hour late for his Tuesday morning conflict with Flare and Race, and that’s pushing it - even for him.
Relationships: David Jacobs & Jack Kelly, Racetrack Higgins & Jack Kelly, Racetrack Higgins/David Jacobs
Series: (super) suit and tie [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906060
Comments: 36
Kudos: 53





	Soup-er Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> The thing that's really fun about how I'm approaching this superhero au is that it's all grounded in the ways their civilian identities are interconnected & them interacting as themselves after having worked together as heroes/villain for so long. And so, the return of Sawyer Kelly. I am really enjoying this silly, self-indulgent superhero au and will likely keep working on it for the near future :D

Impulse is _late_.

Now, Impulse has terrible time management. Flare knows this. Flare has been Impulse’s nemesis for five years now, of course he knows this. But Impulse is now almost a full hour late for their Tuesday morning conflict and that’s pushing it even for him.

Race, who’s been pacing, pauses, his head tipped to one side. “Have you checked the groupchat?”

“Oh, no,” says Flare. He unclips his work phone from his belt, opening his texts to the groupchat labeled with a Christmas tree (a _fir,_ for their initials).

Sure enough, there’s a message from Impulse from about ten minutes ago.

_🎄:_

_Impulse: hey guys sorry for the late notice but i can’t work 2day_

_Impulse: kiddo’s sick, you know how it is._

“Pulse has a kid?” Race says, reading Flare’s mind.

_Flare: No worries. See you later this week?_

_Impulse: I’ll let you know_

_Race: no rush look out for your kid_

_Impulse: thanks love u guys_

Race snorts. “Looks like we got a day off. What’cha wanna do, love?”

“Check on Impulse,” Flare says honestly. Race opens his mouth, but Flare holds a hand up. “I don’t think he’s lying, but he’s – I mean, let’s be honest. He’s a friend. I want to see if there’s anything we can do to help.”

“You are forever surprising me, Flare,” Race says, grinning. “Yeah, sure, let’s go check up on our nemesis’s kid. We can bring chicken soup.”

\--

Katherine picks up her phone on the second ring.

“David! What’s up?”

“Hey, could you send me Jack’s address?” David asks, peeling himself out of his Flare suit. “We talked about doing an art supply exchange and I just realized I never asked him where to send his.”

Katherine laughs. “He _would_ forget to tell you. Yeah, I’ll text it to you, no problem.”

“Thanks, Katie, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Sure I am,” says Katherine. “A regular superhero.”

“For sure,” says David. “Alright, thanks. Talk to you later!”

“She doesn’t know, does she?” Tony says thoughtfully as he folds up his own suit after Katherine hangs up. “That we’re –“

“No,” David replies quickly. “No, there’s no way.”

“She’s awful smart,” says Tony.

“She’d have said something.”

“She just made a superhero joke.”

“Everybody makes those,” says David, waving him off.

“Yeah! And nobody more than Ben and your siblings, also known as the people who _know we’re superheroes.”_

David laughs. “Yeah, okay. _Maybe_.”

“Is this a weird thing to do?” Tony asks a few minutes later, after they’ve hopped in David’s car and started driving toward the address Katherine gave them.

“Definitely,” says David. “But by far not the weirdest thing about our relationship to Jack, at this point. He came to our _wedding_.”

“We didn’t _invite him_ ,” Tony points out.

“But he was there and we didn’t make him leave or fight at all,” says David. “You two took a selfie!”

“Yeah, and you could’a too if you’d ever let us take a damn picture of you,” says Tony.

David laughs. “You know I can’t do that, love.”

“If you’d just wear a _mask_ –“

“I’m not wearing a mask!”

“Ben would make you a mask if you asked.”

“I don’t _want_ Ben to make me a mask.”

“I’m just saying, it would –“ Tony breaks off. “We’re here.”

“We are,” David agrees. “Grab that palette from the backseat, would you?”

Tony does, and before either of them can think better of it they’re standing at the front door of a relatively nice apartment building, and David has rung the doorbell labeled _Kelly_.

“ _Who is it?”_ Impulse – Jack’s voice says through the scratchy speaker.

“David and Tony Jacobs,” David says.

“ _Oh! Come on up!”_ says Jack, sounding surprised but not upset.

There’s a buzz and the front door unlocks, and it is now officially too late to back out of this decision. The door to 3S is open when they get there, but Tony taps on the doorframe as they walk in anyway.

“Hey, guys, come on in!” Jack calls from down the hall. They follow his voice to what looks like it’s meant to be a dining room based on its proximity to the kitchen but is, in practice, serving dual purpose between a sitting room and an art studio.

Jack himself is perched on the arm of a couch where a kid – probably no older than ten or eleven – is bundled up in more blankets than is probably reasonable.

“Hey,” Jack says again. “Sorry again for bailing on you guys this morning, but Sawyer here is – how did you describe it, again, bud?”

“Dying a slow, agonizing death,” the kid, who must be Sawyer, replies scratchily.

“Dying a slow, agonizing death,” Jack repeats, nodding. “In other words, they have a stomach bug and are being _incredibly_ dramatic about it, eh, So-so?”

Sawyer groans and rolls over toward the back cushions of the couch.

“Anyway,” Jack says, “this is Sawyer, my kid. Soze, these are Davey and Tony from work.”

“From the World or are they your nemesis-es?”

Jack raises an eyebrow at David and Tony, letting them choose the response. It’s oddly thoughtful for Impulse, but then again – is it? Jack’s always been a pretty decent guy under the supervillainy, and he did give them that very thoughtful wedding gift.

“I’m Race,” Tony says, throwing an arm around David’s shoulder. “My husband is Flare.”

Sawyer rolls back just enough to give them a once-over. “You don’t look like Flare.”

“That’s on purpose, kiddo, I don’t wear a mask,” says David.

“What brings you guys by?” Jack asks.

“We brought soup!” says Tony. “And, um, a watercolor palette?”

“I told Katherine I needed your address because we were exchanging art supplies,” David clarifies. “So, watercolors. I had a double of that palette, but it’s one of my favorites.”

“Oh,” says Jack, laughing. “Well thanks.”

“We wanted to make sure you were okay,” Tony adds. He shrugs. “You’ve never called in before.”

“Soy doesn’t get sick much, and neither do I,” says Jack. He pats Sawyer’s leg. “We’ve been pretty lucky. Thanks for bringin’ food, though, we really appreciate it. Don’t we, Soze?”

Sawyer gives them a thumbs up, their hand just peeking out from under the blanket mountain.

Jack hops up and leads David into the kitchen so he can set the container of soup down.

“Was this too weird?” David asks.

Jack shrugs. “I think these last few months we’ve crossed a lot of weird as heck lines, what’s one more? I went to your wedding, now you’ve met my kid.”

David laughs. “Well, when you put it like that.”

“Anyway, I trust you guys,” Jack says. “Maybe that’s weird, given our working relationship, but I do. I know you two ain’t gonna use knowing about Sawyer or where we live against me, just like you know I ain’t gonna use knowing your real names or people we know in common against you.”

David nods. “We trust you, too, Jack. We really were concerned about you – and about Sawyer.”

“I know,” says Jack. He looks back into the other room, where Tony has camped out on the floor by the couch to chat with Sawyer. “I’m not gonna lie, though, I didn’t expect you to really be an artist.”

“Of course _that’s_ what you’re hung up on,” says David, chuckling.

“No, for real!” says Jack, but he’s laughing, too. “I figured it was some kinda cover story, but you’re legit! No offense, _Flare_ , but you don’t exactly seem like the artsy type.”

“Flare isn’t,” David admits, shrugging. “David is. When I was getting started I made the Flare persona everything I wished I could be – confident, cool, collected. Dorky, doodling David didn’t exactly intimidate.”

“That’s a lotta alliteration there, Davey,” says Jack. “You are one hell of an intimidating figure as Flare, I’ll give you that.”

“You’re no slouch as Impulse,” says David. “Oh, while we’re crossing lines: my suit guy – like, my supersuit guy – is absolutely fucking _dying_ to design you a costume.”

“You for real?”

“Yeah. I keep telling him it’s a weird thing for us to offer you, but –“

“No, I mean, that’d be kinda cool. I’ve never had a supersuit.”

“I _know_.” David rolls his eyes. “Buttons won’t let me hear the goddamn end of it.”

Jack laughs. “If you give me his contact info, I’ll get in touch.”

“Tony!” David calls. His husband turns to look at him. “Jack’s gonna let Buttons make him a suit!”

“Oh, thank God,” says Tony, shaking his head. “I know you love him, sugar, but he’s been driving me crazy.”

Jack raises his eyebrows, looking slightly confused.

“Buttons happens to also be my best friend,” David clarifies. “You’d’a seen him at the wedding; Benny was my best man.”

“Oh, cool, cool, cool,” says Jack. “It’s funny, the three’a us have known each other for five years and we’re really only just getting to know each other.”

“Hazard of the job,” David says, shrugging. “But we’re off-duty now, so –“

“Off-duty,” Jack echoes, “I like that.”

“We are.”

Tony has returned to his conversation with Sawyer, who he’s coaxed into rolling back over to face the room.

“He’s doin’ real good with Soze,” Jack says, leaning on the doorframe. “Not to be, like, _that guy_ , but are you two plannin’ on kids?”

David shrugs. “We haven’t talked a ton about it. Why?”

“One,” Jack says, holding up one finger and tapping it with a finger from his other hand, “because I am _full_ of parenting tips. Two,” he holds up another finger and taps it, “because if you decide to adopt I am full of tips for that too. And three,” he holds up and taps a third finger, “because I’ll need to know when you take paternity leave so I can take Sawyer to Disney World or something.”

“I don’t know if I want parenting tips from you,” David says, mostly joking.

“I am an _excellent_ father,” Jack says. “Sawyer, tell Davey I’m a good dad!”

“He does okay,” Sawyer says from the couch.

Tony cracks up. “Jack, you’re raising a great kid here.”

“I know,” says Jack.

At the same time, Sawyer says, “He knows.”

David snorts. “If I had any doubts that this was your child, they’d be gone now.”

Tony stands up. “We’ll get outta your hair. Let us know when Soy’s on their feet again and we can get back to business.”

“Of course,” says Jack. “Thanks for being so chill about the whole thing.”

“Hey, dad job comes before supervillain job,” says Tony. “We get that.”

“Just shoot us a text when you’re ready to go back to work,” David says. “Oh! And let me know what you think of those watercolors!”

“Will do, Davey,” says Jack.

David and Tony leave the apartment, but before they drive away they pause for a moment in the car, both looking back up ath the building.

“That was weird,” says David.

“So weird,” Tony agrees.

“I don’t think it’s going to be the last time we do this.”

“No way in hell.”


End file.
